I'm someone who is limited to an automatic license. I even passed my theory twice because the first one lapsed after two years. I even had to parallel park on my test but still really struggle with it and I only have on street parking! Luckily I have access to a car park in a pinch.

I always reverse park as feel it is safer than reversing out but I always indicate. Generally I do I park correctly first time and still park the way I was taught to by my driving instructor. I always wait for other people to park as well.

Does this mean your license only allows you to drive vehicles with an automatic transmission (as opposed to a stick shift?) or something else? It's a term I've never heard before.

I'm someone who is limited to an automatic license. I even passed my theory twice because the first one lapsed after two years. I even had to parallel park on my test but still really struggle with it and I only have on street parking! Luckily I have access to a car park in a pinch.

I always reverse park as feel it is safer than reversing out but I always indicate. Generally I do I park correctly first time and still park the way I was taught to by my driving instructor. I always wait for other people to park as well.

Does this mean your license only allows you to drive vehicles with an automatic transmission (as opposed to a stick shift?) or something else? It's a term I've never heard before.

It probably does. I don't know where woman is from, but in The netherlands if you do your exam in an automatic, you are only allowed to drive automatic.

I'm someone who is limited to an automatic license. I even passed my theory twice because the first one lapsed after two years. I even had to parallel park on my test but still really struggle with it and I only have on street parking! Luckily I have access to a car park in a pinch.

I always reverse park as feel it is safer than reversing out but I always indicate. Generally I do I park correctly first time and still park the way I was taught to by my driving instructor. I always wait for other people to park as well.

Does this mean your license only allows you to drive vehicles with an automatic transmission (as opposed to a stick shift?) or something else? It's a term I've never heard before.

It probably does. I don't know where woman is from, but in The netherlands if you do your exam in an automatic, you are only allowed to drive automatic.

I also work in a hospital, and my preferred parking spot is where I can pull through (so as to pull forward to leave when it's time to go home, as well). I have a lot more control over my arrival time (vs my start of the work day) so that I can arrive with plenty of time to get parked (especially considering I clock in at my desk, which is on the fifth floor, and it's always a gamble as to whether the elevator will go straight up or if I end up stopping at every floor). It's a lot safer to pull out forward from a parking spot, especially since it seems that everyone is leaving at the same time (and a whole lot more anxious to go home, driving like the proverbial bat-outta-hotspot. Not signaling intent when parking, though, is pretty rude.

I'm more reminded of what happened one morning--to come in, you drive on this road, stop at a stop sign and turn left. On the immediate right after that left turn is a double row of parking spots (thus, you can pull through if you are in time to get the first row) then a driving lane, and then several rows that are perpendicular to that first row. Now that first double row is my preferred parking area. It's actually fairly far from the entrance, but I can pretty much *always* get a spot there, which means that I don't have to think about where I parked when I am headed home (I have walked out with several co-workers who, on various occasions cannot remember where they parked because they don't have a particular spot that they ordinarily park in). One day, I followed another car in, and they turned almost immediately into the double row, I was headed for the other end of the double row when, all of a sudden, without signalling, that car had continued in through the perpendicular area to drive around one of the concrete "planter" ends (it is raised concrete, there's some ground in there with a rather anemic looking tree planted) to come back to the double row that I was about to park in (pulling back through the other way). I had to do some sharp maneuvering myself to avoid a collision. Fortunately, no one was immediately behind me.

Situational awareness is a good thing. Communicating your intentions (via turn signals) is a very good thing.

Whether someone pulls in and through, backs in (rim of the lot spots, in particular) or pulls in and needs to back out of the spot--well, the backing out tends to be not so safe just because you have impaired ability to see around other vehicles until you're well into the driving lane, but otherwise it's pretty much a matter of indifference to everyone.

My sister lived in the US (In N. Carolina) for a couple of years - after a while (6 months? 12 months?) she was supposed to stop using her UK licence, so she took some lessons locally to get a NC Licence. She was shocked at how easy the test was compared to what she was expecting (and by the fact she was actually told off by her instructor for checking her mirrors before reversing!)

My sister lived in the US (In N. Carolina) for a couple of years - after a while (6 months? 12 months?) she was supposed to stop using her UK licence, so she took some lessons locally to get a NC Licence. She was shocked at how easy the test was compared to what she was expecting (and by the fact she was actually told off by her instructor for checking her mirrors before reversing!)

I only passed my test on the 3rd attempt.

We have a very hard driving test in the netherlands, a lot of people fail the first time they take it. There is one sure way to fail it though and that is not checking your mirrors before doing anything.

(Do you know what the instructor thought was wrong with checking mirrors?)

I think reversing into a spot is fine as long as you know how to do it. One lady who works in my building always reverses into a spot but is really bad at it (even after years of practice) It takes hers ages of driving backwards and forwards to get in. Meanwhile a line of cars is building up behind her, up the entrance ramp to the boom gate, along the road....

I never reverse in partly because I know I'm bad at it and don't want to hold people up and partly because if i reverse in and there is another row of cars behind I can't get the pram out. I only know of one place where you have to reverse into spots and I avoid it.

toAgree with this. It's not rude if you can do it quickly and efficiently. If it's going to take you several back-and-forths to do it, all the while cars are lining up behind you, you should pull forward out of the way and let everyone pass before trying again. I do this all the time with parallel parking--I'll pull forward with my signal on, but I always wait until there's nobody behind me before attempting to park. Sometimes I get on the first try, but other times it takes longer and I don't want to be rude and hold people up.

In general, I think it's rude to make people behind you to wait unnecessarily. Example: it's fine to have a large cart full of groceries at the grocery store. What is rude is engaging the clerk in unnecessary conversation, trying to decide whether you want an item or not, trying to find a coupon, etc. when there's many people waiting behind you.

My DH is from Toronto and likes to tease me that I had it so easy since I got to take my drivers test in the country ( we live in a smaller city north of Toronto now but I was originally a farm girl ) He also thinks I have much less patience than city drivers since he says country people aren't as used to the traffic!

I think this is true! I flew from NYC to Des Moines once, and my mom picked me up at the airport. We were driving out of the parking lot and there were 2 cars at the payment booth at the exit. As the first of them was driving away (so now only 1 person in front of us), my mom said, "Goodness, look at this traffic!"

I'm not a country girl by any means, but my 3 mile commute has surely spoiled me forevermore.

Re checking mirrors when reversing - the only thing that makes any sense is if maybe she ONLY checked mirrors and didn't turn her head over her shoulder to look behind her? Because checking mirrors at any time isn't ever wrong as far as I know.

My sister lived in the US (In N. Carolina) for a couple of years - after a while (6 months? 12 months?) she was supposed to stop using her UK licence, so she took some lessons locally to get a NC Licence. She was shocked at how easy the test was compared to what she was expecting (and by the fact she was actually told off by her instructor for checking her mirrors before reversing!)

I only passed my test on the 3rd attempt.

We have a very hard driving test in the netherlands, a lot of people fail the first time they take it. There is one sure way to fail it though and that is not checking your mirrors before doing anything.

(Do you know what the instructor thought was wrong with checking mirrors?)

Per the bolded: Honestly, judging by how people drive where I live, I think they hand out licenses no matter how badly people do on the tests!

Fozie is driving, with Kermit, in a De Soto, gets told to turn left at the the fork in the road - and shows a giant fork, stuck in the road. At one point, Fozie's driving is particularly bad and Kermit asks him, 'Where did you learn to drive?'

Fozie replies, 'I took a correspondance course.'

So that's what I ask all the bad drivers out there when I'm ranting and raving inside the safe, relatively soundproof confines of my own vehicle.

Logged

After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

Fozie is driving, with Kermit, in a De Soto, gets told to turn left at the the fork in the road - and shows a giant fork, stuck in the road. At one point, Fozie's driving is particularly bad and Kermit asks him, 'Where did you learn to drive?'

Fozie replies, 'I took a correspondance course.'

So that's what I ask all the bad drivers out there when I'm ranting and raving inside the safe, relatively soundproof confines of my own vehicle.

Per the bolded: I am, and I still have the soundtrack on LP (kids, look up "LP"). Great analogy!

I don't back up into parking spaces. I am a horrible backer-upper. It is easier to pull out from a space than back up out of it, though, so I wish I was better at it.

I'm not horrible at parallel parking, but like most US drivers, I have very little need to and it is easily avoided.

The parking garage at work is designed with slanted spaces and one way traffic, so backing into a space is not done. Sometimes people do at the end of the rows, though.

My DH is a fanatical pull-througher. I never know where the car will be when I come out of the store.

The first I had heard about the separate automatic and manual drivers' licenses in the UK was on Top Gear. They had to round up an automatic "Reasonably Priced Car" because the guest only had an automatic license. He had a terrible lap time. LOL!